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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30015783">Beware The Invisi-Bear (&amp; Friends)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HonestlyAwry/pseuds/HonestlyAwry'>HonestlyAwry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Mind Manipulation, Multi, Unreality?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:55:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,966</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30015783</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HonestlyAwry/pseuds/HonestlyAwry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a double homicide! The Arbiter Corps deserve a little break from those terrible world-ending scenarios, don't you think? (Post Seasons of War)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Valkyrie Cain/Skulduggery Pleasant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Straightforward Start</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sunlight streamed through the forest canopy, birds fluttering about in the branches above. The melodic birdsong and pleasant weather were a stark contrast to the scene that lay before the two police officers. A small clearing at the bottom of a forested slope was now blocked by yellow tape, dark blood smeared across the soft green grass.</p><p>The campsite in the clearing lay open, ransacked and destroyed. The corpse of a man lay pinned against a tree, his fingers still limply curled around the spear embedded into his chest. The man’s eyes were wide and unblinking.</p><p>The feet of a second victim stuck out from the shredded tent, now collapsed, and obscuring her mangled body. Pale smoke rose from a long-exhausted campfire, swirling lazily in the air.</p><p>One officer turned away, having gone quite pale. He swallowed. “I know we’re missing something. Nothing here makes sense.”</p><p>The other would nod, before stepping over the tape. The rest of their team had begun to pack up the investigation and were awaiting the go-ahead to start removing the bodies.</p><p>Henry, the lead detective, had wanted one final sweep of the area. His gaze dragged over the now-familiar scene, the campsite covered in strange circular scorch marks. The trees around the perimeter had been marked with deep gashes. No weapon or tool he knew of matched the strange serrations in the bark.</p><p>Just as Henry was about to say something, a loud crack was heard deeper into the woods. The Detective narrowed his eyes, hand hovering above his holster. The officer behind gave a cry of alarm-</p><p>and Henry’s torso was suddenly swiped from his legs.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
Valkyrie grunted, her fists thudding against the heavy punching bag. It jolted against each punch, the chain suspending it gave squeaking complaints. Her eyebrows were knitted together in anger, and a scowl marred her features.</p><p>Skulduggery Pleasant stood in the doorway, patiently waiting for his partner to stop seething with rage. With each punch, Valkyrie uttered another word. “Stupid. Gym. Receptionist.” She huffed, launching a kick from her left. More punching followed. “Kicked. Me. Out.” Skulduggery tilted his head, giving an expectant “Oh?”</p><p>Slick with sweat and breathing heavily, the young woman sprawled out across the floor, her chest rose and fell as she stared up at the roof. “Yeah. Some creep thought it would be cool to spar, but then he decided to have a less-than-decent grab at my bottom.”</p><p>He stood over her, empty eye sockets peering downwards. “The consequence was a more-than-decent punch in the nose, I trust?”</p><p>Valkyrie grinned as she stuck out an arm, and he hoisted her up from the floor. “You know it.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead, eyes narrowed. “The receptionist was his girlfriend, so she had me banned.” Another huff, she was eyeing the punching bag again, looking as though she might resume her assault.</p><p>Skulduggery waved a piece of paper in his gloved hand, flapping it about in front of her face. “Not in any way trying to detract from your dilemma, but…”</p><p>Towel now wrapped around her shoulders, Valkyrie reached for her water bottle. “Yeah?”</p><p>“A double homicide, one mortal and one sorcerer camping up north in Rostrevor forest. Their campsite was torn apart. Just when the police were just about done their investigation, something tore their lead detective in half.”</p><p>Valkyrie winced. “Ouch. Nobody saw what did it?” Skulduggery rolled up the report and gently smacked it over her head. “One man. A police recruit: Tobias Crook.”  With a small grin, Valkyrie snatched the paper to read it herself. Her eyes skimmed lazily across the page before she looked up at him, nose scrunched. “That’s an unfortunate name for a cop, don’t you think? Officer Crook?” Skulduggery gave a shrug. “I think we already hear enough unfortunate names in our line of work.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Hair still damp from her shower, Valkyrie slid into the passenger seat of the Bentley. Skulduggery patiently waited for her to buckle up before pulling out of the driveway.  With everything that had been going on lately, a good old murder-case was just what they needed. Valkyrie had thought this to herself with a hum. She then frowned. Not that she was thinking murder was good. Valkyrie was very much against murder.</p><p>If Skulduggery had seen her making expressions to herself, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, the man cleared his non-existent throat to expand further upon their task ahead.  “Sensitives are already on-site, all we have to do is have a little chat with Officer Crook and inspect the scene.”</p><p>Upon arrival, the witness has calmed down a fair amount. And from where he sat on the bumper of a white van, he seemed very small. Valkyrie felt sorry for the guy. From what the Sanctuary agents had told her it had been his first big case, and initially, he had been in near hysterics. Valkyrie scrunched her nose. Did police training prepare you to witness a man be torn in half?</p><p>“Good evening, Tobias.”  Façade activated, Skulduggery greeted him.</p><p>Tobias Crook was a lean man of average height and with a mole on his left cheek. Glassy eyes regarded the two arbiters cautiously, before he acknowledged them with a curt nod. “I … need to tell you both… about what I saw..” Tobias murmured, and Valkyrie recognized the work of the Sanctuary sensitives.</p><p>Tobias was likely going to forget the events of his day the moment he got home, and the event would be scrubbed from mortal records.</p><p>Skulduggery only nodded. “Whenever you’re ready.”</p><p>Tobias brought a hand up to his head, wincing as he touched his temple. “Henry and I had come back down to the site, and we were.. Just having a final check of the area. It didn’t make sense. Something just felt wrong.” He swallowed, before glancing up at them.</p><p>“We heard something in the brush. This.. Monster, rose up in front of Henry and then—” Tobias shudders, eyes falling back toward the floor. “It was... Huge. Its hands – Paws? Had giant claws. It-It looked something like a really messed up bear.”</p><p>Valkyrie leaned forward, head tilted. “Where did it go? Surely something that big doesn’t just disappear?”</p><p>Tobias only shook his head, eyes wide. “That’s just the thing. We shoulda been able to see it coming. And even then, it just seemed to <em>vanish</em>.”<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
After inspecting the scene of the crime themselves, Skulduggery and Valkyrie were soon back in the Bentley. The road twisted through lush forest and the sun was low on the horizon. “Okay, so I think we can both agree that the scorch marks were from one of the victims defending himself. The tree guy was an elemental, right?” Skulduggery gave an affirmative nod. “An elemental, yes. However from what I could gather, he had been living in society with his mortal fiancé- the woman under the tent.” Valkyrie’s eyes softened, her expression somber.</p><p>“The spear was a historic artefact, having been reported as stolen from one of the nearby museums. Our next move is to review surveillance footage of the theft.”</p><p>“So.. The only culprit we have so far is an invisible bear…?”</p><p>Skulduggery angled his head smugly. “Well, as you would have it, I do know of a bear matching this particular description.” </p><p>Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. “What? Invisible?”</p><p>Skulduggery clicked his non-existent tongue disappointedly. “No. Well. It’s not invisible. And it’s not a bear, either. It’s an ainmhí doilfeoir.”</p><p>“Oh, just an ainmhí doilfeoir? Okay.”</p><p>They drove in silence for a few moments, before Skulduggery glanced toward the passenger seat. “You don’t know what that is.”</p><p>“I do.”</p><p>“What is it, then?”</p><p>“It’s not invisible. Or a bear.”</p><p>Grinning, Valkyrie stared across at her partner. He sagged slightly in his seat, before shaking his head. With a smirk she opened her mouth to say something else and then-</p><p>the car flipped over.</p><p>Both Arbiters instinctively held their arms up, palms against the roof of the vehicle to brace themselves for impact. One. Two. Three. Three rolls and a loud thud later, Valkyrie hung upside down from her seatbelt in the upturned Bentley. Skulduggery cursed under his breath, effortlessly unbuckling himself and floating the right way up.  Valkyrie groaned, arms thrumming with pain.</p><p>“Valkyrie? Are you alright?”<br/>
<br/>
An upside-down skull peered at her, and careful hands brushed hair from her face. She nodded, looking down- up? To unbuckle her seatbelt. She dropped and Skulduggery created a cushion of air below, preventing her from awkwardly landing on her neck or being cut up by the broken glass. Skulduggery was already examining his precious vehicle by the time Valkyrie was squeezing out the window.</p><p>The Bentley itself had sustained a worrying amount of bodily damage. Though Valkyrie’s heart was still thumping and her brain was still buzzing, a sense of despair washed over her. Could the Bentley be fixed one last time? She looked toward her partner, eyebrows knitted in concern.</p><p>Skulduggery had slowly turned his attention to their environment. “We didn’t hit<em> anything</em>, Valkyrie. I drove off-road.” His tone was matter-of-fact, and she could almost hear the gears in his head turning.</p><p>Brushing small fragments of glass from her jacket, Valkyrie scoffed. “What? You wouldn’t do that.”</p><p>“You’re right.” He murmured. “I <em>wouldn’t</em> do that.”</p><p>The sky had darkened, and with it much light had faded from the forest. Looking up the hill from where they had rolled, Valkyrie couldn’t see any indication of a road. “Wait- But.. We didn’t roll that far. There were streetlights!”</p><p>Skulduggery had taken a few steps backwards, his back facing the Bentley. “Valkyrie. The ainmhí doilfeoir, or ‘Animal of Illusions’, is a creature that specializes in illusions. You remember Wolfsong? How the town wasn’t real?”</p><p>Valkyrie’s eyes widened. “So the road..?”</p><p>“It was an illusion.”</p><p>The forest was deathly quiet, save for the occasional rustling of branches. Her eyes widened further.</p><p>“The bear. It’s not invisible.”</p><p>“Correct. It manipulates your mind, forces you to look past it.”</p><p>A sense of dread settled in Valkyrie’s stomach. “We can just fly out of here, right?” She swallowed, and despite being in a forest, the young woman felt a wave of claustrophobia.</p><p>“Who’s to say I won’t be flying toward the ground? The only thing we can know for sure is where our feet are. I’m afraid we can’t trust the rest of our senses, Valkyrie.”  </p><p>Something moved in the shrubbery behind, and both arbiters whirled around to face it. Alice Edgley blinked up at her big sister with wide eyes.<br/>
<br/>
"Stephanie?"<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Night In the Woods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Arbiters are hunted.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Valkyrie, she’s not real.”</p><p>“But-“</p><p>“She’s not real.”</p><p>The thought of leaving Alice alone in a place like this ate at her insides and her brain screamed for her to turn back and carry her little sister to safety. But no. She wasn’t actually here. Alice was safe at home. This was just feeding off her subconscious or something.</p><p>Valkyrie threw up her hands in exasperation, and then took a step closer to Skulduggery. “Does that mean the ainmhí doilfeoir is literally standing next to us then, or what?” She hissed through her teeth, trying to ignore the illusion standing only meters away. “Are we gonna be ripped in half any second now?”</p><p>“Stephanie? Where are we?” Alice asked politely.</p><p>Skulduggery had his revolver in hand, thumbing back the hammer. “I have no idea. Ainmhí doilfeoir are supposed to be extinct.” He quickly murmured.  “Your aura vision, Valkyrie. Can you see it anywhere?”</p><p>She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before opening them again. The world was a swirling white, almost as though there was a thin layer of static surrounding everything. Where Alice stood was only the pale nothing-ness. Save for her own colourful shell, the only other thing visible in the world of hazy white was Skulduggery’s crimson red, piercing through the veil and reassuring her that he was indeed still there.</p><p>“I can’t see anything, but it’s.. Everywhere. Everything is distorted.”</p><p>As she switched off her aura-vision, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight. The white haze was quickly replaced with inky darkness. The trees seemed to grow larger, and the shadows deeper. Something caught her eye to her left, and a chill went up her spine.</p><p>“Bear. Bear face.” She pointed, to where she had just seen it. “Literally right there. Behind that bush, right of the tree. And then it vanished.”  She had seen it only briefly, but the creature’s eyes had burnt into her mind. Searingly bright atop the dark silhouette of its body, it was gone as soon as it registered.  </p><p>“It’s still there, then.” Skulduggery had trained his gun on where Valkyrie had been pointing, and her hands sparked. “It can’t maintain its own ‘invisibility’ while moving.” </p><p>Both parties backed away, keeping their sights on the bush. “Couldn’t you have told me that sooner?”</p><p>“Well, I would have. If we hadn’t ran off the road.”</p><p>“It knows we know where it is now. Do you think it’s afraid of us?”</p><p>“It could be. You’re quite scary.”</p><p>The corner of Valkyrie’s mouth twitched, before a small voice cried out in alarm.</p><p>“Stephanie! Please don’t leave me here!”</p><p>Her eyes darted further left toward the illusion of her little sister, reaching out toward her pleadingly, and she heard the snap of twigs. She looked back just in time to see the bush disturbed, settling back into place.</p><p>Skulduggery grabbed her by the hand. “We both looked away. Run.”</p><p>Valkyrie in tow, the two sprinted blindly toward what they thought was east. Skulduggery held his other hand out before him, splayed and feeling for disturbances in the air. Often times they still bumped into trees that hadn’t been there before and tripped over rocks that weren’t there at all. They weaved in between trees in this manner, hesitantly jumping over ditches and eventually scrambling up a hill. The leaf debris was damp in the night, making it slippery and slowing them down.</p><p>The sound of something hurtling through the brush behind spurred them faster, heavy footfalls of something much larger, but fortunately slower than themselves was close behind. Skulduggery paused only briefly to shoot behind them, bullets haphazardly flying into the dark.</p><p>In the pale moonlight, a clearing lay ahead and in which was a tall house sat nestled against a steep cliff face. “Is it real?” Valkyrie asked breathlessly, risking a glance behind her.</p><p>“We’ll find out, I suppose.” Came Skulduggery’s reply.</p><p>The two ran up rickety front steps and burst through the front door, slamming it shut behind them. The house was stilted, windows too high to break in through. They pushed old furniture in front of the door, but it wouldn’t hold for long if what was hunting them was determined.</p><p>Valkyrie scanned her surroundings. The building seemed abandoned. A living room with a large window overlooking the clearing. A staircase was to the right of the front door, and a small kitchen was tucked in behind the living room to the left.</p><p>Skulduggery slowly walked into the living room, keeping his gaze level with the window and door. From the living room, he could see both it and the clearing. “I’ll stay down here and watch the door. Make sure we’re alone, dear?”</p><p>Valkyrie rolled her eyes, before beginning to climb the steps. She turned at the newel of the staircase, which looped back up around to the second floor. If outside was dark, then the upstairs was near pitch black. Her hands crackled with electricity, the dull light dimly illuminating her surroundings. A hallway. An empty bedroom to the left. A bathroom. An empty bedroom to the right. She entered, her boots sinking into the old carpet. The floorboards creaked underneath and Valkyrie frowned.</p><p>A large window let faint moonlight into this room, and so she flicked the electricity from her arms, feeling it dissipate within. She had an incredible view of the clearing. The tall redwoods rose up from below the hill they had just scrambled up, and slimmer more autumnal maples dappled an old overgrown driveway. For very brief moments, those piercing white eyes spied on her from somewhere along the tree line.</p><p>Valkyrie shuddered.</p><p>Making her way back downstairs, she stretched. “Nothing upstairs. I saw our friend is waiting outside, but I don’t think he’s gonna charge the door.”</p><p>Skulduggery acknowledged her with a small tilt of his head.</p><p>“Then the waiting game it is.”</p><p>Valkyrie sagged. “…I hate the waiting game.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Dawn lazily crept its way up into the sky, early morning chill permeated the old house. Valkyrie stared out the window with dead eyes, in a state of not-quite-awake and not quite asleep. Watching. Waiting. For what? She couldn’t remember. Some stupid bear.</p><p>Some hours had slipped by, and between idle chatter with Skulduggery and watching for the beast, she was sure she had fallen asleep. But it had been fitful and uneasy, and she now sat propped up against skulduggery. She hadn’t noticed when he had slipped down to sit beside her, but she was grateful he had. His bony shoulder was as good as any.</p><p>“Valkyrie? Can you look with your aura-vision?”</p><p>There was a delay between the question and the young woman nodding. She yawned, before having another look out into the clearing. The swirling white haze was gone.</p><p>“Everything’s back to normal. I think it left.”</p><p>Skulduggery gave a nod, and then started to remove the furniture from in front of the door.</p><p>Valkyrie felt her eyelids droop, and then thin arms lifted her from the floor. They scooped her up and carried her outside, she felt the cold breeze on her face and flinched away into Skulduggery’s chest. Her grumbled complaints were taken away with the wind as they rose up into the sky.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much to Neotericbitch, I re-read your nice reply and finally got motivated to post some drafts!! More soon, hopefully! University is hard. :')</p></blockquote></div></div>
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